Alexander Ipatov won the World Junior Chess Championship in Athens, Greece. Ipatov collected 10,0/13 to claim first place.
Second place is for GM Rapport who scored the same points, but has worse tiebreak.
Note: other games continue, stay tuned for updates at the official website
Note: The closing ceremony is this afternoon, expect a large photo report later
According to regulations Ipatov qualifies to the World Cup 2013, part of the World Championship Cycle 2012-2014.
Alexander Ipatov’s name is now next to a long list of World Junior Champions including Viswanathan Anand, Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Alexander Beliavsky, Garry Kasparov, Kiril Georgiev, Maxim Dlugy, Vladimir Akopian, Emil Sutovsky, Lazaro Bruzon, Levon Aronian, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Pentala Harikrishna, Zaven Andriasian, Ahmed Adly, Abhijeet Gupta, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Dmitry Andreikin, Dariusz Świercz, etc. (see full list below)
More about Alexander Ipatov
Alexander Ipatov, born in Ukraine 16th of July 1993. He is two times vice-champion of the Ukraine among boys under 10 years (2003), under 14 (2007), under 16 and 20 (2008, he was just 14 at the time!). He is Master of Sports (the Ukraine) and a participant of two World championships under 10 years (2003, 11th place), under 14 years (2007, 8th place). His first major feat was the 2nd place at the International Chess tournament Le Mans (France, 2008).
However, Alexander Ipatov first got on the radar of international top chess when he joined as commentator of Chessdom.com for Corus 2010. At the time he had 2497 ELO, but bravely took on the task that has previously been given to renowned chess players as the French national team player GM Christian Bauer, the current Russian champion Natalia Pogonina, GM Aveskulov, IM Perunovic, etc, where the young Ipatov showed great understanding of middle and endgames, winning many fans internationally.
Soon after, while commenting the World Chess Championship live in Sofia, he won the strong Sofia Blitz Championship and from there his success followed one after the other. A few months later IM Ipatov won a medal and GM norm at Cappelle La Grande and the same year came his final GM norm in Nakhchivan with equal points as Vallejo, Sokolov, and Almasi.
Early in 2012 he was attracted by the Turkish Chess Federation and the same year he brings the first gold from World Junior Championships to the country. His next event is the important World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, where he will be on the top boards of the team.
World Junior Champions
1 | 1951 | Coventry/Birmingham | Borislav Ivkov |
2 | 1953 | Copenhagen | Oscar Panno |
3 | 1955 | Antwerp | Boris Spassky |
4 | 1957 | Toronto | William Lombardy |
5 | 1959 | Münchenstein | Carlos Bielicki |
6 | 1961 | The Hague | Bruno Parma |
7 | 1963 | Vrnjac(ka Banja | Florin Gheorghiu |
8 | 1965 | Barcelona | Bojan Kurajica |
9 | 1967 | Jerusalem | Julio Kaplan |
10 | 1969 | Stockholm | Anatoly Karpov |
11 | 1971 | Athens | Werner Hug |
12 | 1973 | Teesside | Alexander Beliavsky |
13 | 1974 | Manila | Anthony Miles |
14 | 1975 | Tjentište | Valery Chekhov |
15 | 1976 | Groningen | Mark Diesen |
16 | 1977 | Innsbruck | Artur Yusupov |
17 | 1978 | Graz | Sergey Dolmatov |
18 | 1979 | Skien | Yasser Seirawan |
19 | 1980 | Dortmund | Garry Kasparov |
20 | 1981 | Mexico City | Ognjen Cvitan |
21 | 1982 | Copenhagen | Andrei Sokolov |
22 | 1983 | Belfort | Kiril Georgiev |
23 | 1984 | Kiljava | Curt Hansen |
24 | 1985 | Sharjah | Maxim Dlugy |
25 | 1986 | Gausdal | Walter Arencibia |
26 | 1987 | Baguio | Viswanathan Anand |
27 | 1988 | Adelaide | Joël Lautier |
28 | 1989 | Tunja | Vasil Spasov |
29 | 1990 | Santiago | Ilya Gurevich |
30 | 1991 | Mamaja | Vladimir Akopian |
31 | 1992 | Buenos Aires | Pablo Zarnicki |
32 | 1993 | Kozhikode | Igor Miladinovic’ |
33 | 1994 | Caiobá | Helgi Grétarsson |
34 | 1995 | Halle | Roman Slobodjan |
35 | 1996 | Medellín | Emil Sutovsky |
36 | 1997 | Z.agan’ | Tal Shaked |
37 | 1998 | Kozhikode | Darmen Sadvakasov |
38 | 1999 | Yerevan | Alexander Galkin |
39 | 2000 | Yerevan | Lázaro Bruzón |
40 | 2001 | Athens | Peter Acs |
41 | 2002 | Goa | Levon Aronian |
42 | 2003 | Nakhchivan | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov |
43 | 2004 | Kochi | Pendyala Harikrishna |
44 | 2005 | Istanbul | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov |
45 | 2006 | Yerevan | Zaven Andriasian |
46 | 2007 | Yerevan | Ahmed Adly |
47 | 2008 | Gaziantep | Abhijeet Gupta |
48 | 2009 | Puerto Madryn | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave |
49 | 2010 | Chotowa | Dmitry Andreikin |
50 | 2011 | Chennai | Dariusz Swiercz |
51 | 2012 | Athens | Alexander Ipatov |
Why no co-champions?
While a few eventual big names are in the list, the greater majority of World Junior champions never made it to elite GM level. That’s why phenoms like Carlsen, Caruana, and Giri never joined this event. It’s hardly anything more than a kids’ championship.